Over at Real Clear Politics I clicked on a link to an LA Times editorial that really blew my mind…

The editorial is titled “Why pick on Wal-Mart?”

The editorial talks about recent legislative actions to force Wal-Mart to spend a specific amount of money to offer health coverage to their employees. The editorial calls this bullying and intimidation. The editorial also states

This kind of legislative intimidation is bad for a couple of reasons. First, it’s arbitrary and unfair. Why not go after companies with 5,000 employees? Or 50? Or ones with employees who wear funny hats and ask, “You want fries with that?”

I’ve wondered that too. Why only Wal-Mart and not all the stores in the mall? Why not all the fast food outlets? Why not pick on all retail outlets? Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the U.S., but there are plenty of other large retailers as well…

About dot com has a list of things you can do with your kids to celebrate National Pig Day.

Send an e-card.

Today is Ash Wednesday. Forty days before Easter. The date of Ash Wednesday in any year is found by subtracting 40 days from Easter, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.

The Anchoress has quite a few lenten links, I’ll send you to the first one, she has further links from there.

Her first post is So, What are you Reading for Lent?

Update: The American Princess links to an excellent post Explaining Lent.

Today is Paczki (poonch-key) Day!

A Paczki is like a jelly doughnut, but a bit different. It’s a piece of fried dough that has been sliced and filled will various fruit fillings (prune is a popular one) and dusted with powdered sugar.

They were originally made to use up the sugar, lard and fruit in the house before Lent.

I just like them. I’m buying my King Cake today too.

Paczki	King Cake

The American Princess has her own Paczki picture and a slightly different pronunciation.

Found via Leslie’s Omnibus:

Bill would allow only ‘fire-safe’ cigarettes

February 27, 2006

BY TRACY SWARTZ Sun-Times Springfield Bureau

SPRINGFIELD — As if being a smoker in Chicago wasn’t enough of a drag. Now some state lawmakers are pushing to restrict cigarette sales to brands that meet fire safety standards.

Only self-extinguishing cigarettes would be sold in Illinois under a plan intended to reduce the number of fire-related deaths. If such a bill passes, Illinois would join three other states in forcing tobacco companies to make cigarettes the companies say aren’t really “fire safe.”

read the rest…

Then we’ll need fire safe candles too, and gas that doesn’t ignite, how about water you can’t drown in? And knives that don’t cut!

Much as some people would lilke it to be so, it isn’t government’s job to save us from ourselves.

And what about all the potential lawsuits! “I bought fire-safe cigarettes and my house still burned down! Now I have no place to live! I must sue the tobacco companies for millions and millions of dollars so I can get a really, really big house!”

We were down for some time this morning but we are back up now. I’m not sure what the problem was but it has been fixed.

We have a back up site at musingminds.wordpress.com if you can’t find us here, we’ll be there…

Via GOP Bloggers.

Our governor, Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), was on the Daily Show a couple of weeks ago and didn’t know that it was a comedy show. AP reported on the story and CNN picked it up. The stories are identical except for one word. Democratic.

The first paragraph of the AP story:

ST. LOUIS (AP) – Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn’t in on the joke. Blagojevich says he didn’t realize “The Daily Show” was a comedy spoof of the news when he sat down for an interview that ended up poking fun at the sometimes-puzzled Democratic governor.

The first paragraph of the CNN story:

Blagojevich says he didn’t realize “The Daily Show” was a comedy spoof of the news when he sat down for an interview that ended up poking fun at the sometimes-puzzled governor.

Now CNN may have just assumed that “everyone knows” that Rod Blagojevich is a Democrat, but they did deliberately remove the word from the story. There is the “labels apply to conservatives, not liberals rule” to consider as well. You know, liberal expert A is just listed as “Expert A from Organization X”, but the conservative expert is listed as “Expert B from Conservative Think-Tank Y.”

I think Matt’s right, media bias all the way…

I’ve been tagged by The Lady Jane over at A Lady’s Ruminations

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to. Just link here and trackback when you make your list, and tell the folks you tag to do the same so you can enjoy their posts.

These are the songs I’ve been listening to lately:

Victor Vito and Freddy Vasco by Laurie Berkner (This is on Noggin a lot and we have the CD) “They ate their rice, they ate their beans, they ate their rutabega and they ate their collard greens!”

You Raise Me Up – Josh Groban

To Where You Are – Josh Groban

Angels Blush – Basia

Time and Tide – Basia

We Will Rock You – Queen (Mommy, play the We will Rock Song again!)

We Are The Champions – Queen (follows We Will Rock You on the CD)

Another One Bites The Dust – Queen (play the Dust song!)

I’m not going to tag anyone with this, feel free to Follow That Meme! if you want to…

bonus song my 5-year-old sings:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Once I caught a fish alive.
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
Then I threw him back again.
Why did you let him go?
Because he bit my finger so.
Which finger did he bite?
This little finger on the right.

This is Bitsy. She’s almost 9 years old and weighs only 6 pounds. She is a perfect miniature cat. (comparable to a six-month-old kitten)

I just love her crossed paws with the tail wrapped around them…

Cavuto: In addition to violent protests, Arabs in the middle east have been boycotting anything Danish and now, word is, that those boycotts are starting to work. It’s costing Danish companies millions. That’s why Michelle Malkin says it is high time for us to buy Danish, and not just the pastries I gobble up every morning. What do you mean Michelle?

Malkin: Well I think that Denmark has been unfairly targeted here. They are a convenient scapegoat for Islamists who are waging a larger war on the west. And right now this small little country is bearing the brunt of the anger, irrational anger, of a lot of people througout the middle east.

Cavuto: All right, let’s spell, let’s spell it out. We know it’s cost them upwards of 30 million U.S. dollars. You’re saying if you want to buy Danish you should do it now and there are some examples of that. Let’s go through some of them.

{graphic listing Havarti cheese, LEGO toys and Skagen Watches}

Malkin: Sure. There are at least a dozen websites now that have been set up for people to buy Danish. And we’re talking about everything from Danish food shops, to the LEGO company, to a lot of liquor and beer manufacturers, Carlsburg for example. There were a lot of people on Superbowl Sunday who traded in their Velveeta Cheese for Havarti Cheese. And even though it seems like a minor and inconsequential thing, I’ve heard from a lot of Danes who are very appreciative of these kinds of efforts. Let’s talk about the bottom line. You’ve got large retailers like Arla Foods who are suffering and feeling real pain. They temporarily laid off some 125 workers. And this is largely affecting more the consumer goods retailers than it is capital goods exports. I think that Denmark will ultimately be able to weather it, but as I say, there are a lot of individual companies that are feeling pain. You even have a pharmaceutical company Novo-Nordis which had a huge contract with Turkey cancelled over these cartoons, which means a lot of people in Turkey are not going to be getting insulin – over pictures.

Cavuto: But are we overstating it? $30 million sounds like a lot in terms here, but to many I’ve talked to Michelle, it’s really just, you know, “chump change.” And that we are making a bigger deal of this by vowing to buy Danish products, when in fact, the hit on the Danish economy is minimal.

Malkin: Well, look, I mean there are two aspects of the Support Denmark campaign. One is to try and help the bottom line of these companies, and sure, Neil, you’re right that in the larger scheme of things, Denmark will be able to weather it. But there is also a moral component here, a show of solidarity for a country that’s been singled out over ridiculous purposes and which, as I say, this whole thing was orchestrated from the beginning and the cartoons that the Jyllands-Posten published are a pretext for some larger issues going on here.

Cavuto: Michelle, thank you very much. Always good seeing you.

Michelle has tons of links at her blog to GO BUY DANISH!